Hippie Physics, Counterculture, Cybercul

The world inside your smartphone may not be all that it seems. Everything from your e-banking app to your TikTok algorithm can be traced back to the Woodstock-going, acid-taking, love (not war)-making attitude that permeated the youth (in spite of the generations before) in counterculture America. Today’s technosphere grew out of the convergence of the post-World War II and Cold War military-industrial complex and the 1960s counterculture.  Resistance to the war in Viet Nam, the Civil Rights movement, and the spread of Buddhist thought created social unrest and political disorder.   (Almost) simultaneously, a counter counterculture emerged – conservative Christians joined forces with right wing and libertarian politicians  to resist sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll, and promote a religiously, politically, and racially “purified” America. Sound familiar?

In the midst of this turmoil, groups of physicists who had dropped out (but not necessarily tuned in) gathered in San Francisco and Palo Alto garages to create a technological revolution that continues to transform the world.  This course will explore this seminal period through a consideration of music, films, and books of this era, as well as the technological and philosophical implications that quantum physics has on our society and culture today.